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I posted this once before, but I seem to be in the mood for reruns today. Do you guys ever do that? Maybe it’s a bit arrogant of a writer to share their stuff over, but dammit, sometimes you’re just proud of something, you know?!

Plus, I love libraries. I hope everyone is having a great Sunday! Happy Writing!

Library

stacks of books
quiet corners
and table nooks
The chairs are patterned
The carpet’s soft
Daylight beckons
Here’s where we start off:

Pick your destination
A rocket to space
Mars like universe
A romantic place
He’s on a pirate ship
She’s in the sky
Stomp through
castles and lakes
Watch dragons fly

Hiking through jungles
Searching for treasure
Double-secret-agent-lives
an island of pleasure

Here’s the adventure:
Giants and elves
Magic spells
Risking your life
One sunny afternoon
All on bookshelves

A boy kicks a hacky sack
outside alphabet soup, toy shop
on that liberal side of town

You can be surrounded by people
And feel so lonely
Smell of incense, wet dirt
Live music, sounds nice
the summer night, to tell a story
a story filled with heartbreak, regrets and new memories

Security is an old man with an empty coffee cup
Families are diverse and couples walk unashamed with tattoos and purple hair
The singer croons and someone in the crown whistles
And I think that this night feels perfect, almost

The seat next to me is empty
And just as a write this – someone whistles
But it’s not you, babe. It’s not you.

I know I’ve been writing a lot of Game of Thrones reviews, lately, but I can’t resist getting caught up in the hype of it all. I don’t often write reviews, because I usually don’t have the time, but with a lot of characters finally reuniting on-screen after seven long years, well, some things just need to be talked about.

Beware, Spoilers ahead!

Photo credit: HBO

It seemed like last night’s episode ‘Spoils of War’ was going to be a filler episode, but I don’t think that any episode qualifies as a filler when we are so close to the end.

I think we should just go ahead and name this season, Arya Stark’s season. Everything great that has happened so far has somehow involved this hardy, young woman. Last Sunday brought us its best reunion yet: Arya finally arrives home!

The episode starts out in High Garden. Bronn and Jaime talk about money, and Jaime looks like he is already tired of war. Bronn questions him about it, and it seems the King Slayer is still upset about learning who killed Joffrey.

Cersei gets another visit by the Iron Bank, and reassures them that they will get their money; Lannisters always pay their debts. Bran is visited by Little Finger, who gives him a Valyrian steel dagger. Little Finger seems to think this is a nice gesture, (you know, because he is a notorious kiss-ass,) but the significance is lost on Bran, who knows Little Finger’s dirtiest secrets already. Bran ends their conversation by quoting Little Finger’s own words back at him.

Meera tells Bran she is leaving, and once again we are reminded that Bran is no longer the Bran that we used to know. She feels heartbroken and betrayed when he shows little emotion at her news.

Arya finally shows up at Winterfell, but the guards at the entrance don’t believe her when she tells them who she is. We are reminded of a scene that happened in season one, when she is a little girl and tries to get back into the Red Keep after she is out chasing cats. From the beginning, Arya never tried to be the Lady she was meant to be, and now she has really come full circle.

The reunion between her and Sansa is both heartwarming and awkward, as Sansa doesn’t know what to believe when Arya mentions her kill list. It looks like she doesn’t believe it is real, until Bran mentions it as well. Bran gives Arya the dagger that Little Finger gifted to him.

And here we come to probably the best part of the episode. Arya asks Brienne to train with her and I feel like this is an Arya moment we’ve been waiting for from the first time she tried to become No One. Here she finally gets to show off her skills and strength; this young Stark is much more powerful than she appears.

Meanwhile, in Dragonstone, Jon shows Dany the cave of dragon glass, which conveniently has cave drawings of white-walkers. These illustrations of the undead give Jon Snow another opportunity to reiterate his statement that Dany needs to help him or they will all die if they can’t defeat the Night King.

Dany holds true to her own convictions. Sure, she will help him, she says, “if he bends the knee.” It’s clear from their body language that they are both aware of each other, but as for romance, “there’s no time for that,” insists Jon Snow to Ser Davos.

Dany exchanges girl talk with Missandei, who is worried about Grey Worm. Theon Greyjoy arrives on the last ship that survived Euron’s attack, and Jon comes very close to killing him, but he holds back because of what Theon did for Sansa.

Theon is at Dragonstone to ask help from Daenerys to get Yara back, but she is not there. Dany and her Dothraki hoarde have gone to High Garden and there is a battle with the Lannister army there, or rather it is a slaughter. Dany’s dragon, Drogon, burns the soldiers and it is a horrific, and impressive CGI display of the dragon’s power.

Bronn manages to wound the dragon with the weapon that Qyburn made; and in the heat of the moment, Jaime charges at Dany with every attempt to kill her, but he is pushed out-of-the-way at the last moment before Drogon’s flames can burn him.

The Highlights?

Um, where to begin?

Arya’s return home and reunion with family.

Remembering Jon Snow in a cave with another woman, not so long ago. What is it with Jon Snow and caves? He will win Dany over yet, just see if he doesn’t.

Every Sunday, Mike and I have a routine: at 9 o’clock we settle in front of the TV, (often with ice cream) to tune into Game of Thrones. It’s a love we both share. A story line with characters, (compared to some) that we have become deeply invested in. So, with many character’s story lines finally coming together with others…suffice to say, every night with Game of Thrones is an important one! I think it goes without saying:

Beware, spoilers ahead!

Photo Credit: HBO

It was so strange seeing Daenerys and Jon Snow in the same room together! She looks powerful, beautiful and queen-like. He looks like a Northerner, bulky in furs, hair unkempt, and tired of politics. But who do you think won the room?

It’s hard to say, really. Missandei lists out Daenerys’ names and even we’re tired of hearing them. Davos Seaworth retaliates with an awkward, “This is Jon Snow…King of the North.”

It’s clear that Jon is out of his element, but he is also the Jon Snow that we love best, the one who stays true to his convictions. He was trusted to rule the north by the men who named him king and that’s exactly what he’s going to do…even if it means facing a queen who at first looks too big for her britches.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Dany…but with this meeting, I felt myself turning on her. How dare she look down her nose at our beloved Jon Snow? How dare she remind him again and again that she is the ruler of the seven kingdoms, when there are clearly other things to be worried about. White walkers, for instance?

It’s funny how quickly our loyalties change when it comes to characters. However, she does grant him access to the dragon glass on Dragonstone, which is a nice gesture. Doesn’t really seem like these two will start coupling up anytime soon, but it seems like a start, at least.

Tyrion gets some great screen time in this episode. He becomes mediator between the two, especially when Jon refuses to “bend the knee” when asked. Daenerys questions Tyrion, “you told me you liked this man?”

Varys is quick to notice that Melisandre didn’t rush to Jon’s side when he and Davos arrive and she casually reveals that her and Jon Snow didn’t part on good terms, and that she will return to die in Westeros just like Varys. Something she saw in the flames perhaps?

Meanwhile, in Old Town, Sam is both praised but not really rewarded for curing Jorah’s greyscale. Jorah, who feels lucky to have escaped death once again, reveals his plans to head back to Dany’s side. I mean, what a shocker, really. I can’t imagine how he would fit into her entourage anymore. She has Tyrion now and Jorah just feels like a third wheel at this point.

Theon Greyjoy is scooped up by survivors of Euron’s attack, but they pretty much call him a coward, because he is. Also, an unexpected and beautiful meeting happens between Sansa and Bran, who’s finally arrived back at Winterfell.

But he is much changed from the Bran she knew. He tells her how sorry he is about her marriage to Ramsay, and she seems startled by how much he knows and for bringing up such a terrible memory. He is the three-eyed Raven now and it is difficult to explain to her what that means.

Sansa seems to be enjoying her new-found power as Lady of Winterfell by making plans for the long winter, but it’s the words of Little Finger that she still continues to hang on to. Does anyone else want to punch this man in the throat every time he speaks?!

Grey Worm and his fellow Unsullied take Casterly Rock, but it’s not really a victory. The Lannister army is in Highgarden, home of the Tyrells. And Euron’s ships destroy most of the Unsullied fleet.

Suffice to say, Cersei was pleased with the gift that Euron presented to her: Ellaria Sand and her daughter. She poisons Ellaria’s daughter and locks them both in a room together. Ellaria’s punishment is to watch her daughter die and rot in front of her.

Whoa. And here we thought Cersei was done for at the end of Season 6 when we saw all of Dany’s ships sailing for Westeros! Cersei might still be the super bitch in town, but Dany has dragons. Time to use them, I’m thinking?

But alas, it was Olenna Tyrell who really got the last word in this episode. After taking Highgarden, Jaime grants her a merciful death: poison in a glass of wine. But after chugging the poison, she looks him in the eye and reveals that she was the one who orchestrated Joffrey’s death and she doesn’t regret it one bit!

It made me sad to say goodbye to this character. Every time she was on the screen you were bound to laugh out loud or gasp at all the excellent lines she got to deliver. She was the spunky, not-afraid-to-speak-her-mind grandma that we all came to love…and I will miss seeing her very much.

She deserved a better send off than an off-screen death, but she went down fighting! And that’s what matters.

The highlights of this episode?

It goes without saying, really. Every scene between Dany and Jon Snow was a loaded one and seven years in the making. We want more of any type of scene with them together!

Bran and Sansa reunion, although bittersweet as it was. Bran is not the same Bran from the first season who liked to climb. How cute and sweet he was then!

Olenna Tyrell’s confession to Jaime.

What did you guys think of this episode? Who were you rooting for in the Dany/Jon Snow meeting?

On our vacation this year, Mike and I played the license plate game. We made a list of all 50 states and checked off all the license plates we saw on our drive out to Utah. The only state besides Hawaii we couldn’t collect was Rhode Island, and guess which state’s license plate we saw last night in the Buffalo Wild Wings parking lot around here?!

From New York to Utah, we saw 48 license plates, not including Hawaii and Rhode Island. (RI was our holy grail of license plates until last night). We also saw two Canadian plates and one from Mexico. It was fun and it was exciting and it passed the time. I wish I was back on that road trip, seeing sights that I have never seen before.

This post is about three weeks late, but it is fun to reminisce on the fun times we had. Hey, if you missed part 1 and part 2 of our vacation you can click on the links to view them.

This was probably the best time I have ever had…and I’m trying to find another vacation to compare, but I really can’t.

After about two and a half days of driving, Mike and I made it to our KOA in Cedar City, Utah. The campgrounds are about an hour away from Zion National Park. The tent sites were very close together and at first I didn’t like it at all but then I shook myself a bit. I was on vacation! Why was I complaining?

We got our tent up very quickly, and it was really all a matter of getting dinner for the night and going to bed.

We found a diner about two minutes down the road from the KOA, called “All American Diner.” Anytime Mike and I can find a great diner, with good, cheap food, we call it a special treat.

The next day we headed to Zion National Park. The first day, we hiked the emerald pools trail, which was about a 5 mile round trip. A good portion of it was climbing up hill; I wasn’t prepared to climb it in about 110 degree heat. We took plenty of water and had our snacks, but the heat, man.

When we got back to the car that first day, the car’s thermometer registered 117 degrees!But while hiking, you’re walking up sand that’s so hot you can feel the heat burn through your sneakers. The sun beats down on your hat covered head and you long for shade, like you long for cold water when your throat is dry and your tongue feels thick.

That’s also what makes the pools you see on this hike so special; it is like a small oasis in the middle of this desert climate, but the hike is more difficult the higher up you go.

The trail becomes steeper, narrower; the shade trees are a little bit more sparse. I was struggling to catch my breath in the heat and wondered if it was all worth it. And then you come around a bend in the trail and that view. That. View.For one delicious, corny second, you feel like you are the only person on earth, and this view was made just for you. Now, mind you, I am a very easily entertained person…so that might have something to do with it. But, seriously, guys. If you can’t appreciate a view like this and call it nothing less than phenomenal, there’s something wrong with you.

This is the second pool, about two-thirds of the way up the trail.

At the very top of the trail, were these squirrels that kept hanging around, hoping for some snacks or trail mix. It’s $100 fine to feed the animals in the park, but kids can’t resist…not very often you have wild animals hanging around near your feet, and trying to climb into your backpack.

And if you make it to the very top, there is a larger pool of water at the very top. It looks like a small beach in the middle of the mountains. If you were allowed to swim in it, if there weren’t so many people trying to catch their breath, it might have felt more magical. But by that time, I think the heat had really done Mike and I in.

Afterwards, we got food at the park and then headed back to our campsite. The further we got from Zion, thankfully, the cooler it became. A 99 degrees felt practically chilly compared to 110…kinda. Not really. But what fun we had!

Next day, we hiked the Narrows! And then after that, the Grand Canyon.

Daenerys makes plans with Lady Olenna Tyrell, Yara and Ellaria Sand. The other women wonder why Dany doesn’t use her army to conquer the red keep, but Dany has other plans. To quote Tyrion, she doesn’t want to be “Queen of the ashes.” The Tyrell and Dorne army will surround the city by blockade and basically starve them out, all transported there by Yara’s ships, of course.

Samwell might have found a treatment for Jorah’s grayscale, but it includes a lot of screaming and pus and is not exactly legal.

Meanwhile, in Winterfell, the king in the north receives two messages: one from Samwell informing Jon Snow of dragon glass in Dragonstone, and one from Dany, inviting Jon to Dragonstone to “bend the knee.” Um, I don’t really see Jon bending the knee to anyone, do you?

He decides to go despite Sansa and the other lords who think that the invitation might be a trap. Sansa seems to want to argue more that is until Jon leaves Winterfell in her care until he returns. Finally some power for the dear Sansa?

Arya is in a tavern and runs into Hot Pie, her friend from the good ol’ days when Arya was pretending to be a boy. She learns from him that her brother Jon is back in Winterfell and instead of going south to Cersei, Arya heads back home.

Hot pie asks her what happened to her, and she quickly changes the subject. What happened indeed?

Death, survival, close chances to rendezvous with family members only to have them murdered minutes after or before her arrival. The Red Wedding…her aunt Lysa. You can’t help but think that something is going to go wrong again on her way back to Winterfell. Jon might not be in Winterfell when she gets there. They might pass right by each other!

Arya encounters her dire wolf, Nymeria, in the woods with a pack of her own, but Nymeria is a wild wolf now and won’t go back to Winterfell as Arya asked. She’s chosen her own path, too.

We have a nice, romantic moment between Missandei, and Grey Worm, and Varys gets some nice dialogue while he proves himself loyal to Dany. The Red Woman shows up at Dragonstone and is welcomed by Dany. It is Melisandre who suggests Daenerys meet with Jon Snow. She claims that either one might be “the prince who was promised.”

Cersei tries to convince the Lords of Westeros the horrors of Dany’s barbaric dothroki and unsullied army. While, Jamie Lannister speaks with Samwell’s father about becoming more involved in the war to come.

But no matter how careful, nothing goes like how Dany plans. As Yara and Ellaria and the Sand Snakes are on their way to form that blockade, Euron attacks. He kills one of the Sand Snakes? Two of them? And burns all of Yara’s ships. It looks like Euron’s gift to Cersei is going to be the woman who poisoned her daughter.

Euron also takes Yara as captive and Theon has a chance to intervene, to maybe beat all odds and rescue her, but in the heat of the moment, he breaks down and becomes Reek once again and like a coward, jumps over the side of the ship.

What were some highlights?

Definitely all the scenes with Arya in them. Arya (so far) is getting a lot of great screen time in these first few episodes of the new season, and I feel like things can only get better?

Dany and Jon Snow will finally meet! I thought this wouldn’t happen until the end of the season, surely?

All of the strong women of Westeros gathered in Dany’s war room. Yara, Ellaria Sand, Lady Ollena, and Daenerys.

What was your favorite part of last night’s episode? I’d love to hear about it!

It’s been a few days since the premiere of season 7, and already I’m getting anxious. I want the new episode to be out already!! This will be more or less a recap. And my thoughts on Sunday’s episode.

Photo credit: HBO

Well what happened…

The episode starts out with Walder Frey giving a toast to all the other Freys. But wait, it’s not him at all but Arya Stark seeking revenge for the Red Wedding! She poisons all of them. Afterwards, she tells the terrified girl at the table, “You tell them, winter came for house Frey.”

Sansa and newly elected ‘King of the North,’ Jon Snow, clash over what to do with the families who betrayed them when Ramsay was still around making life difficult.

Jon shows compassion, while it’s clear that Sansa seems to be wondering more and more where her place is, especially with Little Finger constantly popping up and whispering doubts and insecurities in her ear.

Bran and his companion arrive at the wall, and Arya shares a comedic moment with some Lannister soldiers when she blatantly tells them that she’s going south to kill the queen.

One of the Lannister men end up being none other than Ed Sheeran, a surprising if somewhat jolting cameo. It took me out of the story for a bit, but I love Ed Sheeran and it was a fun scene. (I wonder if Arya is going to kill him in the next episode, hah!)

Euron promises ships to Cersei in exchange for marriage. She says no and he says he won’t return until he has a gift for her. Sandor Clegane learns about the lord of light when he sees a vision of white walkers in the flames. (The Night king and his army are walking towards the wall.)

While Jon prepares the north for winter, Samwell is in Old Town with Gilly and baby Sam. There is an entertaining montage of bed pans, slop, and shelving books that really shows the monotony of his new life studying to be a maester. Sam discovers a book in a very harry-potter-like restricted section of the library, which says there is a lot of dragon glass, (the stuff that kills white walkers) in Dragonstone.

Dragonstone, incidentally, happens to be the Targaryen’s old home and we finally get to witness Daenerys taking her first steps in Westeros! This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for from the beginning!

My favorite part of the whole episode?

The whole Arya getting rid of the Freys was quite entertaining. It’s also refreshing when you think about all the strong women who are still left in this show.

We’ve got Arya, Sansa, Brienne, Cersei, Dany, and Yara. Oh, and can’t forget Lyanna Mormont of Bear Island! Evil or not, considering Game of Thrones record of killing off characters, that’s a lot of women power!

What was your favorite part of the episode? The white walkers? Arya? I’d love to hear about it!

I like the new job, guys, but it’s hard to be creative sometimes when you are burnt out from work. Sometimes I work out after dinner, and that seems to give me more energy. Sometimes I read. But most of the time, I am a bum, sitting and watching Netflix and just tired, tired, tired.

I never get tired of these falls by my house. I write about them all the time, I know, but I can’t help it. I love the sound of the running water. So relaxing. I like the way the water smells. I like jumping from rock to rock on the edge of the shore, like I used to do as a child.But that water. There’s no other music like it in the world…this is my crack. This is the sound I fall asleep to. This is the soundtrack for many of the poems that I write.

Adventure is found along the shores of creeks, and falls and rivers. When the water just continues on and on and beckons…it teases you to follow, to discover where it ends.

How I wanted to jump in and go with it tonight, guys. There is freedom here, and longing. I wanted to see where it would take me. I wanted to go, go, go…

stacks of books
quiet corners
and table nooks
The chairs are patterned
The carpet’s soft
Daylight beckons
Here’s where we start off:
Pick your destination
A rocket to space
Mars like universe
A romantic place
He’s on a pirate ship
She’s in the sky
Stomp through
castles and lakes
Watch dragons fly

Hiking through jungles
Searching for treasure
Double-secret-agent-lives
Just for her pleasure

Here’s the adventure:
Giants and elves
Magic spells
Risking your life
One sunny afternoon
All on bookshelves